


2843 miles

by henriqua



Series: Otayuri Week 2017 [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Non-skater AU, OtaYuri Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-25 14:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9825347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/henriqua/pseuds/henriqua
Summary: Otayuri Week 2017 Day 2: Social media | Yuri bites his lip and glances out of the window, feeling like even the very gloomy Saint Petersburg is laughing at him and his miserable crush on Otabek, even though Yuri grimaces when he thinks of the word crush.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title: 4575 km

When Yuri sees a picture of Otabek Altin for the first time, he audibly gasps in his high school's crowded cafeteria, effectively drawing the attention of everyone he shares a table with on himself. Miron, who is sitting on his right, leans closer and takes a look of the screen of the phone, rolling his eyes.  
  
” _Another_ male model?”  
  
”He's not a model, just some random guy,” Yuri defends himself, tapping the screen with his nail. Miron reads the short bio the boy has written next to his profile picture, only stating his age, location and a simple quote in English. Tatiana, a girl who shares Yuri's pain and frustration five times a week in a ballet class, gestures Yuri to give the phone to her, and he hands the device over.  
  
”A good looking random guy,” Tatiana says with raised eyebrows and whistles. She gives the phone back to it's owner and tilts her head with a teasing smile on her lips. ”What tag were you browsing this time?”  
  
”That's not important,” Yuri says quickly and throws a smirk to Tatiana over the table. The girl laughs but doesn't continue her teasing, giving Yuri a great chance to keep ogling the picture he had stumbled upon. The picture is taken outside, trees in full autumn colors framing a path leading to a park. Under the trees stands a tall boy (or man? His bio says he is 19 but to Yuri he looks older – more mature, somehow) with dark hair and piercing eyes. He's fashionably dressed and Yuri can't blame Miron for mistaking him for a model – he looks graceful, a hint of a smile on his lips.  
  
Yuri double-taps the picture, making the small heart under the picture turn red. The picture already has a nice amount of likes and comments, and Yuri isn't surprised by that: the 'tall-dark-and-mysterious' aura around the boy is fascinating.  
  
And Yuri is painfully aware his type of men is 'tall-dark-and-mysterious'.  
  
”Earth to Yuri, do you copy? The break is almost over,” Miron says, placing a hand on Yuri's shoulder. The blond nods and throws his phone in his bag, but only after clicking the _follow_ button next to the username _otabek-altin_.  
  
*  
  
Yuri frees his hair from the small bun Tatiana had made on him earlier, pulls a hoodie on over his head and yawns. He hands the hair tie to Tatiana when she steps out of the girls' dressing room, in the middle of putting her pointe shoes in her bag. She slips the tie around her wrist and Yuri throws his duffle bag over his shoulder, holding the studio's door open for his friend.  
  
The sun has already set, and the yellow glow of the street lights between the grey buildings reminds Yuri of a bad horror movie. He listens to Tatiana's monologue about how their new adagio routine is hard and how she absolutely despises doing adagio in the center, and fishes his phone from the pocket of his jacket. He taps open the Instagram app, wanting to check the new likes and comments on the photo he uploaded before their ballet class: a simple one of himself and Tatiana in their training outfits, a black-and-white filter on top of it, posted with _#bestfriends_ and _#lifewithoutballetispointeless_ tags.  
  
Tatiana reaches the end of her rant when Yuri clicks open his notifications and almost drops his phone.  
  
The two most recent notifications catch his attention and make his heart skip a beat. He blinks a couple of times and refreshes the page before allowing himself to look at the screen again. He's certain the app was just glitching but even closing and re-opening it doesn't change the fact that the two notifications on top of the page say _otabek-altin liked your photo_ and _otabek-altin started following you_.  
  
*  
  
Yuri learns quickly that Otabek Altin updates his Instagram quite often, almost daily, but doesn't have accounts on any other social media sites. His pictures are always good quality, probably taken with a proper camera instead of his phone – accompanied with very generic tags, like the city he lives in and the brands of the clothes he's wearing – and Yuri makes sure he leaves a like on every single one of them. He would never admit he has turned on the notification service on Otabek, but every time his phone tells him _otabek-altin posted a new photo_ , Yuri's day gets better.  
  
And, even though the photos Yuri posts are mostly dumb selfies and black-and-white ballet snapshots – definitely far from fashionable outfits and shots of pretty scenery – Otabek is one of the first ones to like them.  
  
Yuri lies on his back on his bed and scrolls down on his Instagram feed, the selfie he had just put up steadily gaining new likes and comments. He doesn't really pay attention to them – most of them are from his friends from school, ballet class or dance camps he attends every summer. He reaches the end of new updates and clicks open his notification page. He skims through the notifications and feels how the tempo of his heart gets quicker when his eyes catch the always hard to believe text telling him Otabek had left a like on his most recent photo.  
  
The notification is only two minutes old and, with his heart hammering against his ribs, Yuri opens Otabek's profile, taps the three black dots on top of the page and, after hovering his thumb over the _send a message_ link for a couple of seconds, presses his finger down.  
  
_yuri-plisetsky 21:16_  
_thanks for always liking my pics!!_  
  
otabek-altin 21:20  
They're really nice and pretty! Thanks to you for always liking MY pics.  
  
yuri-plisetsky 21:22  
_thank you haha, i think yours are the nicer ones tho!! i mean, i mostly post selfies and stuff_  
  
otabek-altin 21:28  
As I said, nice and pretty :)  
  
*  
  
”Yuri, isn't this Otabek guy who always comments on your photos the same dude you drooled over a couple months ago?” Yuri doesn't want to smile when Tatiana mentions Otabek's name, and he forces a neutral look on his face.  
  
”Yeah, he followed me back and we started talking and stuff. He's really nice,” Yuri says, trying to sound nonchalant. He feels Tatiana's questioning eyes on himself but he keeps his focus on the book in front of him. After a while Tatiana hums and keeps tapping the screen of her phone, their daily session of having lunch and doing homework together (or, in Tatiana's case, scrolling through social media) continuing in comfortable silence.  
  
Yuri means it when he says Otabek is nice, because he is. Probably one of the nicest guys Yuri has ever met (even though they haven't met face-to-face, but that's just a small unimportant detail). Since Yuri sent a simple thank you message to Otabek they have been messaging back and forth every day, talking about their hobbies, the things they loved, what they had for breakfast and what was the last thing they laughed at. Otabek is easy to talk to, he understands Yuri's sense of humor perfectly, and even though Yuri is certain Otabek doesn't mean to flirt with him, the seemingly innocent compliments flatter him.  
  
Yuri doesn't exactly consider himself good-looking, and even though Otabek strikes him as a person who tells everyone they look really nice, Yuri can't get enough of the praising comments he gets from the other boy. Yuri doesn't receive a lot of compliments, and if he does they're mostly about his ballet technique – never about his looks. And, if Yuri is being honest, he hasn't exactly felt the need to hear them, at least not until now.  
  
And even if he suddenly started hearing them from others, they wouldn't mean as much to him as the ones Otabek writes in the comments of his photos or in the direct messages they keep exchanging.  
  
Yuri bites his lip and glances out of the window, feeling like even the very gloomy Saint Petersburg is laughing at him and his miserable crush on Otabek, even though Yuri grimaces when he thinks of the word _crush_. It's silly, stupid even, and Yuri knows that much – Otabek is older than him, looks good enough to date anyone he wants and, on top of everything, lives in another country.  
  
Yuri sighs and leaves the cafeteria with Tatiana and Miron, trailing behind his two friends to the second floor when his phone buzzes in his pocket.  
  
_otabek-altin 12:12_  
_Morning, Yuri! How are you today?_  
  
yuri-plisetsky 12:14  
Fine  
  
otabek-altin 12:15  
Hm? What's wrong?  
  
yuri-plisetsky 12:16  
I said I'm fine  
  
otabek-altin 12:18  
Your typing has changed so something must be up. You sure you're fine?  
  
yuri-plisetsky 12:20  
you know me too well, it's unfair  
i just feel a little down today, nothing serious  
_i also hurt my ankle yesterday so my teacher won't let me dance today and that sucks_  
  
otabek-altin 12:23  
I see, I'm sorry to hear that. Is there something I could do to make you feel better?  
  
yuri-plisetsky 12:25  
i dunno, unless you know some magic trick that heals sprains??  
  
Their teacher arrives and Yuri takes his usual seat in the back row, throwing his bag on top of his desk so he can hide his phone behind it. The teacher starts the class, scribbling something on the board and Yuri takes a look at his phone: still no new messages. Otabek is usually quick with his replies and Yuri gnaws the inside of his cheek, wondering did he say something weird or stupid that scared the other boy away.  
  
Yuri opens his book and almost jumps when his phone vibrates under it, buzzing loudly against the desk.  
  
_otabek-altin 12:32_  
Don't they say a kiss heals everything?  
  
_yuri-plisetsky 12:33_  
_you'd kiss my ankle??_  
  
_otabek-altin 12:36_  
_To be honest I would kiss any part of you._  
  
*  
  
When Yuri sees the familiar path leading to the park, tall trees on each side of it, he takes his phone out of his pocket and snaps a photo. He tucks a wild strand of hair behind his ear, the warm summer breeze throwing the same locks on his face over and over again, and sends the photo to Tatiana and Miron. The trees are green instead of the bright reds and yellows they wore when the two of them saw them on a picture for the first time, but Yuri is positive his friends will recognize the place.  
  
A strong arm is wrapped around his shoulders and Yuri looks up, giving an excited smile to Otabek.  
  
”The very first picture I saw of you was taken here,” he tells the other boy, gesturing towards the path and trees. Otabek hums and crunches his eyebrows, deep in thought.  
  
”That was... last September, right?” Otabek's low voice and the arm wrapped around Yuri's shoulders make his skin tingle pleasantly, and Yuri tries to hide his happy grin by nodding and scanning the park around them. It's a beautiful, sunny day and groups of people sunbathing or having picnics are scattered between the trees.  
  
Yuri reads Tatiana's reply to the photo he sent to her earlier and steals a glance of Otabek from the corner of his eye: he's running the hand not resting on Yuri's shoulder through his dark hair, a tiny yet soft smile on his lips. His eyes don't glitter with excitement and nervousness anymore like they did when he saw Yuri for the first time and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, hugging him for five minutes in the middle of Almaty international airport. Otabek doesn't talk much but Yuri can read his emotions well from his eyes, and the blond is already afraid of the day when their four weeks together come to an end and he has to look Otabek in the eyes while saying his goodbyes.  
  
But on that moment the look in Otabek's eyes is nothing but pure affection as he notices Yuri's stares and raises his eyebrows teasingly to the blond.  
  
”Can we take a picture?” Yuri asks quickly, way too aware of the blush spreading on his cheeks. Otabek nods and Yuri raises his phone, both of them posing to the front camera. Yuri takes multiple shots and lets Otabek choose the best one out of them (he says they all look the same but points at the very last one anyway).  
  
Yuri puts a filter on top of the picture of Otabek pressing his lips on Yuri's cheek, pulled up by a happy laugh, and opens the Instagram app to upload it. He tags Otabek in the photo and after typing _#Almaty_ , _#boyfriend_ and _#ldr_ in the description box taps the _share_ button.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://sleepyams.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/vilmahenriika)


End file.
